Coming to the Netherlands as a tourist? If you suspect you might have coronavirus, you will need to be tested. Afterwards, all measures that apply to Dutch citizens also apply to you.
If you have health complaints, you can get tested at a nearby GGD, reports NU. If your test turns out to be positive, you must go into isolation wherever you are staying. Tourists will be allowed to leave isolation if they report no health complaints in the last 24 hours or if they became ill more than seven days ago.
Tourists will also be subject to contact and tracing investigations, to determine how they got infected and who they may have been in contact with.
Responsibility for self-insolation falls on the tourist
How can you make sure that a tourist remains in self-isolation, considering they have no home address in the Netherlands? “It is preferable for a tourist to stay where he or she resides at the time of an identified contamination. But that is not always possible,” says a spokesperson from GGD GHOR (Medical Relief Organization in the Region).
If a tourist tests positive, but can no longer stay in their accommodation, there are some alternatives. They will need to arrange a new place to stay in during the isolation period, and the local GGD can assist them in this process. This responsibility nevertheless falls on the tourist.
Tourists that do not comply with self-isolation can, in extreme cases, be forced into isolation by a GGD, as part of the Public Health Act.
The GGD is also allowed to call the police so that they can escort the infected tourist to the place of isolation. This measure also applies to Dutch citizens.
If you’re a tourist coming to the Netherlands, you can check more about the current situation of the coronavirus in the country here.
Should there be a special protocol for infected foreign tourists? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Feature Image: JESHOOTS-com/Pixabay
